In general, the laundry treating apparatus includes all devices for managing or treating laundry like homes or a laundry shops, such as washing, drying, removal of creases, and so on of laundry and beddings.
For an example, the laundry treating apparatuses are washing machines for washing laundry, dryers for drying the laundry, washing and drying machines having both a washing function and a drying function, refreshers for refreshing the laundry, presses for removal of creases from the laundry, or forming pleats required for the laundry, and steamer for removal of unnecessary creases from the laundry.
The refresher, for making the laundry more comfortable or refreshing, performs functions of drying the laundry, supplying aroma to the laundry, preventing laundry from generating static electricity, removing the creases from the laundry, and so on. Many refreshers are being supplied to the North American market.
Many steamers, appliances in general merely for supplying steam to the laundry for removing the creases from the laundry, are supplied through T.V. home-shoppings, and the like, for removal of the creases from fine laundry, because, different from general press, a hot plate is not brought into contact with the laundry.
In the meantime, currently, many washing machines, particularly, drum type washing machines having steam generators, are being supplied. That is, products are spotlighted, which have washing effects maximized by supplying steam to laundry before and after the washing, or in the middle of the washing, for sterilizing, redwing a laundry wet time period, acceleration of activation of detergent, and so on.
Particularly, of the laundry treating apparatuses, though the present invention is related to the refresher, the present invention is not limited to the refresher.
A related art refresher is provided with a cabinet having a space for holding laundry formed therein. Steam is supplied to the space for removal of creases from the laundry. A source of the steam may be a steam generator in the cabinet for generating the steam, or may be a boiler on an outside of the cabinet.